The Most Important Phase of Filmmaking
By Roger Lindley
Ask a room full of filmmakers what the most important phase of production is, and you’re about to start a holy war.
The DP leans forward, certain:
“Production. Obviously. That’s where the film gets its flesh.”
The cameras roll, the actors embody, and the lights shape the mood. This is the phase where imagination becomes incarnation.
The editor rolls their eyes and scoffs:
“Please. Editing is where the film gets its heartbeat.”
That’s where timing, rhythm, and emotion are born. Films are found in the edit, not captured on set.
In the back, the line producer crosses their arms and calmly interjects:
“Try making anything without money. Finance is the most important. Otherwise, all you’ve got is a script and a dream.”
The sales agent counters with a smirk:
“You can have a masterpiece in your Dropbox, but if nobody sees it, does it even exist? Distribution is where the film gets its life.”
And then—of course—the screenwriter, leaning against the wall like a sage on the misty mountain, says quietly:
“No, my children… it’s the script. That is where the spirit of the film is woven into the tapestry of your silly little minds.”
And honestly? They all have a point.
Every phase matters. Every phase is critical.
A film with no funding never gets made.
A film with no script has no soul.
A film with no editor has no pulse.
A film with no audience? No legacy.
But if you peel back the layers of this argument—beneath all the debate—you’ll find the answer hiding in plain sight:
It’s story.
Story is the atomic structure from which everything else forms.
Without it, production is chaos, editing is aimless, and marketing is a blindfolded guess.
You don’t make a film and hope there’s a story in there somewhere.
You build everything around it.
Good Storytelling Has Boundaries
And here’s where many indie filmmakers miss the mark. They confuse freedom with formlessness.
They want to reinvent the wheel, break every rule, make something “totally different.” But without structure, all you have is beautifully shot noise.
Storytelling isn’t supposed to be easy, but it is supposed to be structured. And that’s where Aristotle comes in.
Aristotle, the Original Showrunner
Aristotle’s Poetics (yes, written around 335 BC) gave us the storytelling bones we still use today:
A beginning, middle, and end
A protagonist with a goal
Rising action, reversal, recognition
Catharsis (aka the emotional gut punch)
He wasn’t building an industry. He was defining why we connect to narrative in the first place.
And here's the kicker:
The best stories don’t feel like they’re following rules.
They feel inevitable.
Like they couldn’t happen any other way.
Constraints Create Clarity
Good stories are built inside fences: time constraints, character motivations, moral dilemmas, thematic arcs.
These aren’t limitations—they’re your canvas.
The tighter the story structure, the more powerful your creative choices become.
It’s not about being formulaic. It’s about being intentional.
If your script is just a series of vibes and ideas, your production will wander. Your edit will search. Your marketing will struggle.
But if your story is solid? Every phase gets sharper. Everyone on your team knows what they’re building toward.
So… What’s the Most Important Phase?
All of them.
And none of them.
Because without story, none of it matters.
The best films—independent or studio-backed, short or feature, drama or comedy—are those that understood this from day one.
The story isn’t a phase.
It’s the foundation.
Everything else is execution.
If you’re a filmmaker looking to sharpen your storytelling, rethink your development process, or build a slate that actually sells—we should talk.
Because story is everything. And it’s time to stop treating it like just another box to check.
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